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THE ANTI CORRUPTION LAW AND CORRUPTION IN NIGERIA BY Man cannot be made good by an ordinary act of the parliament. - George Bernard Shaw The above statement may not be an absolute truth with any form of generalised acceptance, but it does portrays an element of reality that adequately highlights the futility and hypocrisy of the ongoing furor and controversy trailing the passing of the Independent corrupt practices and other offences Act 2003 into law by the national assembly over-riding the president's veto. To the ordinary Nigerian especially those who cannot afford the luxury of a newspaper,or who are too busy to dig for details of the problem, the president is doing a noble job preventing the "corrupt" lawmakers from tampering with the legal basis of the anti-corruption crusade, and probably absolve themselves from the possibility of being brought to book after leaving office. An average Nigerian holds the legislative arm of Government in high contempt and can hardly believe that any action can be undertaken by the lawmakers without a sinister plan for self aggrandizement. Public sentiments is really against the lawmakers for a number of reasons: * Attempting to tamper with the ICPC Act connotes a mischievous design to truncate the "battle against corruption", or at best to neutralise the law so that it will not haunt them after leaving office. * The legislature due to unceasing controversies and squabbles with the executive over finances and emoluments have lost to a great extent goodwill and can hardly make any genuine impression on the people. * Finally and most pathetically, more than 70% of the law makers lost their constituencies in the last elections. So many believes that the ICPC Act crisis may just be an attempt to execute vendetta, call it a last desperate move to get back at somebody. The above factors were corroborated by the near commando style by which the action of signing the bill was done, scaling over procedures and ignoring a standing court order to stay action on the bill. However, if you ask me, I will tell you that despite the inconsistencies and irregularities that plagued the passage of the new bill, it is the hitherto unreliable and inefficient National Assembly that seems to be having the right focus, for the first time doing something that is necessary and good naturally. I will not want to go into the details of the Independent corrupt pracices and other offences Act, 2000 that gave birth to the Justice Mustapha Akanbi's Independent Corrupt Practices Commission(ICPC).
However, I desire to simply x-ray the situation with a view of putting straight some misconstrued arguments. This will help us as a nation from making the mistake of allowing people to capitalise on our sincere desire to stamp out corruption to blindfold us. After going through the details of the new act, whatsoever motivated the ammendments lost relevance, because I felt that the new inputs into the law represents the best thing can happen to the hypocritical anti-corruption crusade. I sincerely wish to salute the courage of the legislators for at least attempting to expose the deception that is the ICPC. No doubt, corruption has become a canker worm, a sort of culture in present day Nigeria. It is practiced with brazen impunity at every level, the magnitude depends on what is available. Even the Nigerian society is structured in such a way that the man who goes into office and decide to live a contented life is regarded as a huge failure by his community. This explains why so many communities hunts after public officers to exchange traditional honours and titles for a share of the loots, a way of having a taste of the "national cake". I wish to make it clear that this corruption is not a problem that can be exclusively attributed to the Obasanjo administration, it is a gangrene that has eaten deep into the fabrics of national life. Some will like to attribute that to the cumulative effects of military dictatorship.
I quite agree with such views, Muhammed Badu in his "Essays in the struggle for democratic rights in Africa" did state that "dictatorship and corruption go well together, they nourish each other, it is so essential for continuing exploitation of the people." Really, I believe that. But why is it that under a democratic rule, the cancer of corruption appears to be threatening more than ever to choke development out of national life in Nigeria. It is quite simple, democracy in its pure form would have ensured less of corruption, but the reverse is the case in this kind of transition democracy cum neo-military civilian dictatorship where executive decisions must pass down unchallenged at all levels. It can be very expensive to buy people's will, and to sustain it is even more expensive, this is where we are. The government of Obasanjo had on assumption of office in 1999 made the fight against corruption a policy thrust. This misapplied and half-hearted policy declaration was actually appreciated by Nigerians with the hope that it will be able to sanitise the polity from corrupt practices.
This battle against corruption actually gave rise to the ICPC Act, 2000 that was signed into law after a protracted delay at the floor of the National Assembly. Most people interpreted the foot dragging of the legislators on the issue of the anti-graft law to mean that they are against the anti-corruption struggle. However, through critical analysis, it is becoming clear the law makers delayed in signing the law because they knew ahead of us that it is meant to be a deception and at best a failure. They were in a vantage position to know that the whole anti- corruption thing is a sham and to legislate it means an exercise in grand hypocrisy. Recently, we heard reports that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ghali Umar N' aaba announced that members of the house are returning to the national treasury the sum of 4.8 million Naira of bribe money, so how did government money of that magnitude became bribe money, who offered it and for what purpose? ICPC AS A WEAPON OF INTIMIDATION For 3 years of the existence of the anti-graft commission, Nigerians did not see a single government official that was charged despite the preponderance of different forms of corruption at all levels.
One would have expected that the Vincent Adzie's report that grossly indicted the presidency and more than 10 Federal ministries of corruption would have been given a hearing at the ICPC, but it was not to be, rather the man was booted out of office and nobody raised an eyebrow. One would have expected the rots in some Federal parastatals despite the billions of Naira pumped into them to attract the attention of the ICPC. This was our expectation from a government that undertook to fight corruption, but unfortunately, corruption and financial impropriety still reigned in high places and the ICPC remained a paper tiger and at best a political tool. Nevertheless, the commission remained on the pages of the newspapers until the 2003 general elections gathered momentum and names of people who have remain antagonistic to the president and those who were yet to reconcile with the second term dream of the president started popping up on the ICPC petitions register.
This is what no Nigerian living can deny and actually this was the beginning of the ICPC Act ammendment programme. Personally, I hold the opinion that if we have a law that cannot sanction until somebody wields it against another person, then something is terribly wrong and deserved to be re-visited and probably reviewed. I need to put this straight that the ammendments made to the ant-graft law 2003 will actually strengthen it and make it more independent . Issues like how the chairman of the commission is appointed and the conditions of service are cardinal and vital if the law will not have room for sacred cows, and if the law will not be used as a weapon to witch hunt people holding opposing views. The present constitution of the anti-graft commission is such that it is structured to make room for sacred cowism and selective justice while serving the purpose of checking then excesses of any variant factor within the government. After all, "he who appoints and pay the piper not only dictates the tune but the dance steps." I will not want to be drawn into the arguments of the legality of a bill passed under a court injunction, because I am yet to understand the import of separation of powers if a court can just stop a parliamentary procedure, or when people that are supposed to be neutral arbiters have decided to take sides.
It appears to me that the Judiciary is crying more than the bereaved, and it is quite unfortunate that it has become an adjunct of the executive serving the selfish interest of the rulers instead of being the last hope of the common man. This is the rise of civilian dictatorship and subversion of justice to promote self preservation. I don't seem to care about the outcome of the on going crisis, whether it is the ICPC Act 2000 or the ICPC Act 2003 doesn't really make any difference to me, corruption is a moral decay that is planted and watered by egocentric and gregarious instincts, and until we appreciate the problem in such manner and approach it without hypocrisy, no law, no edict and no court ruling can bring us out. Joseph U. Anwana Calabar, Nigeria
June 2003
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